Water, it is the best possible liquid for hydration. Some drinks may be better in some ways but water is overall better.

For example water hydrates you for longer and it fills you up quicker, energy drinks such as gatorade hydrate you very fast but not for long and doesn't fill you up much, so you end up drinking a decent amount of it. They also have quite a bit of unnecessary artificial crap in them :/.

More likely to just make you more thirsty.But then drinking more water because the SPAM you just ate made you thirsty will re-hydrate the body, so in a roundabout way you could say that SPAM was at least an aid to re-hydration.

Water is good, but you need to ensure salt levels are kept up whether by bacon sandwich, salted nuts or more scientific method. I use Hi-5 now when it's hot after ending up in hospital on a drip last year when I drank only plain water on a really hot, long and hard ride.

After a bit of research I opted for HEED as it doesn't damage teeth, apparently its good for them... been using it for around 6 months now subtle flavour, good ingredients only downside is its not Australian.

I just use High-5 electrolyte. It's cheap, tastes ok, and importantly is in a convenient form that can be taken with you on longer rides and added as you re-fill. They also have a caffeinated version that tastes like red-bull

They don't have carbs included but I find it easier to manage if I get those requirements from gels - it's easier to count.

durilium wrote:I just mix up weak orange cordial, i find if my water has a bit if taste i drink more. Looking into adding some maltodextrin to it soon as i find out where to buy the stuff other than the brew shop.

What's wrong with getting it at the brew shop? It's all the same stuff.

My local Coles and K-Mart used to stock the Coopers stuff, but stopped in the last six months. The home brew shop close by has half a kilo for $4, which I think was about that I paid for it at the supermarket.

Cheers,Simon.

Phil Liggett, TdF 2011, Alpe-d'Huez: "I reckon tonight in hindsight he may have won the Tour de France tomorrow."

scirocco wrote:Water is good, but you need to ensure salt levels are kept up whether by bacon sandwich, salted nuts or more scientific method.

Bad idea. Since sweat is hypotonic, ingesting salt (i.e. those foods you listed above) will increase salt's concentration in the body. Not something you want. Put it another way, sweating alone, without replenishing anything, increases salt's concentration because the water to salt ratio of sweat is greater than that of plasma (which is why we feel thirsty and need water to get the original balance back). If you ingest salt while its concentration in plasma already on the rise, you'll be in for some trouble.

Minute amounts are fine to facilitate water absorption but deliberately jacking up salt concentration is stupid.

The above post needs to be listened to. I read posts on another forum, that Nikolai is on and there is no BS in what he says or back slapping saying look at me!He talks a lot of sense and no nonsense but some will find it confronting

Foo

I don't suffer fools easily and so long as you have done your best,you should have no regrets.Goal 6000km

It's just common sense, really. For the sake of the argument, let's just say the ratio of water to salt in a given solution is 100:1 so in 1L of it there are 10g of salt. If you lose 100mL of water and 1g of salt, the ratio stays the same, i.e. you've got 900mL of water and 9g of salt. If, however, you lose 300mL of water and 1g of salt (which is what happens when you sweat), the salt's concentration rises, i.e. it's now 700mL:9g. Now does it make any sense to add salt to the solution to compensate for its loss? Not if abnormally high concentrations of salt cause problems. To get the balance back, you would want to add only water, wouldn't you?

By the way, you can substitute "salt" with "electrolytes", nothing changes. Oh and those numbers are made up of course, only to illustrate the point.

Allen Lim is arguably the top sports physiologist in cycling today. He's been researching hydration status for years. His words are gospel to me. Recently he created his own commercial electrolyte. I've never heard him say anything that contradicts the latest sports science in relation to his new business venture. There's been a shift in sports hydration to upping the concentration of electrolytes more closely to sweat. Most sports drinks you buy from supermarkets have about 1/3 to 1/2.

Below is a recent video where Allen discusses hydration and energy intake. There's some gems in it. Listen carefully, several times.

As I've indicated previously, I make my own electrolyte which has the following per litresodium 850mg potassium 170mgcalcium 85mgmagnesium 25mg

You can make this yourself by putting 3 grams (2/3 teaspoon) of the following mix into a litre bottle

Blend the following into a fine powdersea salt 190 grams (sodium source)diet rite salt 65 grams (sodium and potassium source)rennies antacid tablets 30 tablets (calcium and magnesium source)these three products are commonly available from Coles and Woolies. These concentrations are similar to endurance sports specific hydration formulas like Nunns, Clif, Shotz, eload.Allen Lim's product has even more electrolytes.

Last edited by PawPaw on Sun Apr 29, 2012 10:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Why sodium concentration of electrolyte drinks is important, and why taking "water only" to replace sweat losses in events over 2 hours is not recommended by all sports medicine authorities.

The above chart is hypothetical in that all sweat losses do not come from plasma, rather, all of the body's water stores. In fact, water is shunted from all tissue into the blood vessels to maintain plasma volume. However, understand clearly this leaves brain, nerve, muscle, and digestive organs severely functionally compromised.

Sweat losses of 1% bodyweight (2% of total body water) see the body in a state of mild dehydration, in which athletic and cognitive function are significantly compromised; athletic function by up to 30%.

Cognitive and physiological state continues to deteriorate rapidly until death which usually happens with water losses of 6% bodyweight (15% total body water).

sandberry wrote:I commute approx. 8kms each way, with occasional rides of longer distances, almost always just use water.When I feel like something a little more, I use Procari Sweat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocari_Sweat) in powder-form, adding a little bit to my water - it's common in Asia, where I first found it while swimming competitively.

I'm with you Sandberry. I do a lot of quite serious distances all year round including over the hot Perth summer and mostly all I use is water. Occasionally I will have a drink of unsweetened full-strength squeezed orange juice. Frankly I give more attention to fixing the unpleasant taste that some water bottles give.

PawPaw wrote:There's been a shift in sports hydration to upping the concentration of electrolytes more closely to sweat. Most sports drinks you buy from supermarkets have about 1/3 to 1/2.

There may be something to this. I understand that ingesting sufficient quantities of sports drinks during events to replace all fluid loss is dangerous (as is just water) because it has less electrlyte levels than plasma or inside cells or something. (Causes swelling of cells including those in the brain - nasty.)

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